THE STINTS. 
255 
“ The sitting bird runs a dozen or twenty yards from the nest 
on being disturbed before taking flight, but one has only to sit 
down and watch quietly for ten minutes when she will return,’'' 
and, after a few preliminary runs, settle down on the eggs ; this 
is the best way to find them, as the nest is very difficult, in fact 
almost impossible, to discover without the assistance of the old 
bird. 
“The behaviour of the bird when the nest was found, was 
really extraordinary ; it often ran around our feet while we were 
blowing the eggs, looking reproachfully on the operation ; one 
time sitting on my gun which lay within easy reach of my hand. 
1’hen it would sit down in the now empty nest a second or two, 
after which, pathetic attempts would be made to beguile us 
from the spot; the whole scene so touchingly pretty as to 
a/mffs/ induce a hardened collector to give back his treasures.” 
Eggs —Four in number, and pyriform in shape. Ground- 
colour olive-grey to creamy, or dull, brown ; the eggs being 
rather remarkable for the boldness of their spotting, which is 
chocolate-brown or blackish. Sometimes the spots are reddish- 
brown and are distributed over the egg, but the darker mark- 
ings are generally near the larger end, and often form confluent 
blotches. The underlying spots are light grey. Total axis, I’l- 
1-2 inch; diam., o'8-o'85. 
11. THE AMERICAN STINT. LIMONITES MINUTILI.A. 
Tr//im minutilla, Vieill. N. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 466 
(1819); Dresser, B. Eur. viii. p. 51, pi. 552 figs. 2, 3 
(1871); B. O. U. List. Brit. B. p. 170 (1883); Saunders, 
ed. Yarrcll, Brit. B. iii. p. 396 (1883); Saunders, Man. 
Brit. B. p. 573 (1889). 
Trinm miniita minutilla, Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. in. p. 205 
■(1885). 
Z 'monites minutilla, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 548 
(1896). 
Adult in Winter Plumage.— Similar to tliat of Z. minuta, but 
the size smaller and further distinguished by the distinct ashy- 
brown of the fore-neck and chest, which is mottled with dark 
* It is to be noticed that Mr. Pearson found the male to be the sitting 
bird, as is the case with L. tcvmiincki. 
